Overview
The following links lead to Rev.
Lawson's chapters from his 'Ailsa Craig':
Ownership→
History
|
Ownership of Ailsa Craig
The creatures see of flood and field,
And those that travel on the wind!
With them no strife can last; they live
In peace, and peace of mind.
For why?- because the good old rule
Sufficeth them, the simple plan,
That they should take who have the
power,
And they should keep who can.
- Wordsworth.
From the earliest times, Ailsa Craig seems to have 'belonged to
the Barony of Knockgarron. Some owners of that property must
therefore have established a claim to it in days of old. And as
Knockgarron is in Dailly parish, the strange anomaly occurs of a
parish, no part of which is within two miles of the sea, including
within its bounds our solitary Ayrshire island. At the time,
however, when we can trace the ownership of Ailsa by means of
written documents, the Barony of Knockgarron was included "within
the wide domains of the Carrick Earls who lived at Turnberry
Castle. And as one of these, Duncan by name, wished to build and
endow an Abbey on his lands for the glory of God and the good of
his fellowmen, he resolved, amongst other gifts, to bestow upon
the reverend fathers .and brethren of Crossraguel, Ailsa Craig,
that their table might be duly supplied with what at that time
would doubtless be considered rare delicacies. For, however bare
and unproductive Ailsa may now appear to us, it must be remembered
that in those days of swampy lands and poor tillage, an island
like Ailsa, teeming during part of the year with countless
sea-fowl, and during another part, with prolific conies, would
appear quite a providential storehouse.
This, at least, is what seems to be the most
probable Tersion of a fact which I now proceed to state. That fact
is, that the first time the name of Ailsa actually appears in a
written document is in a charter dated 1404, granted by King
Robert III.—the poor unfortunate grandson of Bruce, who died at
Rothesay Castle—confirming to the Crossraguel Monastery all the
various lands then possessed by them; and amongst these occurs
this one:—" Item, Insula de Ailysay, cum pertineiiciis."
Here, then, is the first mention of our Craig in history. It then
belonged to the Abbey of Crossraguel, and had certain pertinents,
or belongings, which probably consisted of the buildings then
standing on it.*
Ailsa thus seems to have been disjoined from the rest of the
Barony of Knockgarron, and the main portion of the property passed
into other hands, after the Bruces (who succeeded the old Carrick
Earls) ascended the throne. In this way, we find the Barony of
Knockgarron, in 1480, in possession of a family of the name of
Fergusson. In 1526, the Barony was " resigned " by Neil Fergusson
to William Kennedy, Abbot of Crossraguel. And finally, "the
nonentries of the Barony of Knockgarron, with all pertinents,"
were granted in charter, dated 1548, by Quintin, Abbot of
Crossraguel, to Gilbert, third Earl of Cassillis. The only curious
circumstance about this latter conveyance is that it was a sale or
gift of certain lands of the church, within twelve years of the
Reformation, to a relative of the Abbot's; and it looks as though
the church dignitaries of that day, seeing disendowment looming in
the distance, were quietly " setting their house in order."
But how about Ailsa Craig, which we saw had become disjoined from
the old Barony of Knockgarron, and annexed to the possessions of
Crossraguel 1 We cannot clearly trace the history ; but we know
this much, that after the Reformation, it appears united to its
old Barony again under the ownership of the Cassillis lords. They,
as is well known, fell heirs, one way or other, to most of the
Crossraguel lands, and to Ailsa amongst the rest. The old barony
thus continued entire till 1850, when the late Marquess of Ailsa
sold the landward portion of Knockgarron Barony to Mr Mackie, the
present proprietor, reserving, however, the island of Ailsa, which
thus remains in possession of our great local family. In 1883, in
consider¬ation of £1400, five acres of land on Ailsa were disposed
of to the Northern Lighthouse Commissioners, for the purpose of
erecting on it the present Lighthouse establishment.
The tenant of the Craig pays a yearly rent of £30, which is made
up by the sale of rabbits, but chiefly by the export of curling
stones. In addition to this, he is bound, when required, to supply
the proprietor with a certain number of sea-fowl and their eggs
during the season.
In Paterson's History of Ayrshire, it is said that the Barony of
Knockgarron, with the islands of Ailsa and Sanda, at one time
belonged to the Fairlies of Fairlie, near Kilmarnock; and that the
Marquess of Ailsa used to pay a lordship of so many solan geese to
be laid down at the door of Fairlie House, every year. But I
question the accuracy of this statement. At any rate, I cannot
trace the owner¬ship of Ailsa save through the three proprietors
already named :—The Earls of Carrick, previous to the endowment of
Crossraguel Abbey; The Abbots of Crossraguel, from that date to
the Reformation in 1560; the Cassillis family, from the
Reformation to the present day. In 1580, Balfour says "the Earl of
Cassillis holds Ailsa of the Abbey of Crossraguel;" and we know it
has never changed owners since then. It only remains to be added
that in 1806 the Earl of Cassillis was raised to the dignity of
Baron Ailsa; and in 1831 to the still higher dignity of Marquess
of Ailsa.
There is, it appears, an Irish tradition that Ailsa Craig is a
portion of Ireland, and that that is the reason why there
are no snakes on it! King Brian Boroimhe (pron. Boroo), who
flourished about the year 1000, seems to have laid his hands on
it, and the Irish call it Brian's Stone to this day. It is
thus a recent rhyming Irishman regards the matter:-
There is a rock, a sea-girt rock,
That's known the world wide
As the beacon of the mariner
That's steering for the Clyde.
For Ailsa Rock is anchored sure;
It guides the pilot true,
Although his bark like seagull rides
On ocean-mountains blue.
Our sailor lads on foreign seas
For months or years may roam,
Bat here they hitch their breeches high,
And shout three cheers for home.
And emigrants in going forth
To seek the golden ore.
At Ailsa breathe a parting prayer
For dear friends left on shore.
And Pat, whose eyes are dim with tears
For Molly left alone,
Exclaims, "Bedad, I'm half seas o'er,
There's Brian Boru's big stone;"
* * * * *
* *
Bad luck to the gosoon spalpeen,
Or Saxon idle drone,
Who would make filthy lucre
Out of Brian's blessed stone.'
* It is a common
tradition that Ailsa was used as a sort of " Botany Bay" for
refractory monks. But this is absurd. |
